Somewhat paradoxically... I'm curious if you've tried to modify your diet by including extremely spicy foods on a daily basis?
Most people approach diet modification as a way to maximize comfort and minimize pain, but my strategy is to use capsaicin as a 100% safe and pure-pain mechanism to sound the alarm when I develop an ulcer. It's not always immediately obvious when you develop an ulcer, depending where in your GI tract it is... And this is where knowledge is power: if you can somehow know that you're going to flare up before you actually flare up, then my argument is that you have a better chance at damage-control. Similarly, if you are more pain-sensitive to ulcers you would be getting either way, then you might be aware of more episodes of inflammation than you might otherwise be. With my super hot pepper diet, knowing that it's purely pain and no damage makes the pain itself a lot less stressful, and I have very occasionally used this signal to take a single 2.5mg dose of prednisone (I've been on the same no-refill bottle since 2013, so this doesn't happen often). Since 2013, I've never had to take more than one dose at a time, and judging by how many pills I have left, I've probably only done it 20-30 times or so (I should really keep a journal).
(Disclaimer: I wouldn't put a lot of faith in this tip, and I'd strongly caution against taking corticosteroids for more than a few days, and to talk about this with your doctor before trying it.)
Funny enough, I’ve almost never eaten spicy foods. Interesting way of finding where/if you have an ulcer!
Mine is in my terminal ileum and I can definitely feel when things are…tighter, for lack of a better description.
Definitely agree with recommending staying away from corticosteroids if you can avoid it. I was on them for a year and the side effects on them were not too horrible, but getting off was a whole other story! I am glad they were there though, as it was only thing keeping me from surgery/the hospital until I found a biologic that worked.
Somewhat paradoxically... I'm curious if you've tried to modify your diet by including extremely spicy foods on a daily basis?
Most people approach diet modification as a way to maximize comfort and minimize pain, but my strategy is to use capsaicin as a 100% safe and pure-pain mechanism to sound the alarm when I develop an ulcer. It's not always immediately obvious when you develop an ulcer, depending where in your GI tract it is... And this is where knowledge is power: if you can somehow know that you're going to flare up before you actually flare up, then my argument is that you have a better chance at damage-control. Similarly, if you are more pain-sensitive to ulcers you would be getting either way, then you might be aware of more episodes of inflammation than you might otherwise be. With my super hot pepper diet, knowing that it's purely pain and no damage makes the pain itself a lot less stressful, and I have very occasionally used this signal to take a single 2.5mg dose of prednisone (I've been on the same no-refill bottle since 2013, so this doesn't happen often). Since 2013, I've never had to take more than one dose at a time, and judging by how many pills I have left, I've probably only done it 20-30 times or so (I should really keep a journal).
(Disclaimer: I wouldn't put a lot of faith in this tip, and I'd strongly caution against taking corticosteroids for more than a few days, and to talk about this with your doctor before trying it.)